Windows 8 and 9 could go 128-bit

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Microsoft's follow ups to its soon-to-be-released Windows 7 operating system are already in development, and the first nuggets of information about the software packages are starting to appear. It looks like the operating systems could feature 128-bit support.

A LinkedIn profile for a Microsoft employee called Robert Morgan included the phrase: "Research & Development projects including 128bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan". It also added: "Robert Morgan is working to get IA-128 working backwards with full binary compatibility on the existing IA-64 instructions in the hardware simulation to work for Windows 8 and definitely Windows 9".

Windows 7 is reckoned by many to be the last Microsoft OS that'll support 32-bit technologies. If Windows 8 adds 128-bit support in addition to 64-bit then Microsoft looks to be moving considerably faster to the next level than it has with 32-bit.